Chemistry

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Natural \Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr.
     L. naturalis, fr. natura. See {Nature}.]
     1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the
        constitution of a thing; belonging to native character;
        according to nature; essential; characteristic; innate;
        not artificial, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as,


        the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural
        motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or
        disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color.
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              With strong natural sense, and rare force of will.
                                                    --Macaulay.
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     2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature;
        consonant to the methods of nature; according to the
        stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws
        which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or
        violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural
        consequence of crime; a natural death; anger is a natural
        response to insult.
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              What can be more natural than the circumstances in
              the behavior of those women who had lost their
              husbands on this fatal day?           --Addison.
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     3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with,
        or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and
        mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or
        experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural
        science; history, theology.
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              I call that natural religion which men might know .
              . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by
              consideration and experience, without the help of
              revelation.                           --Bp. Wilkins.
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     4. Conformed to truth or reality; as:
        (a) Springing from true sentiment; not artificial or
            exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a
            natural gesture, tone, etc.
        (b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature;
            according to the life; -- said of anything copied or
            imitated; as, a portrait is natural.
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     5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to
        one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
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              To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . .
              He wants the natural touch.           --Shak.
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     6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. especially,
        Related by birth rather than by adoption; as, one's
        natural mother. "Natural friends." --J. H. Newman.
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     7. Hence: Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of
        wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
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     8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as
        contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which
        is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
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              The natural man receiveth not the things of the
              Spirit of God.                        --1 Cor. ii.
                                                    14.
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     9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some
        system, in which the base is 1; -- said of certain
        functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those
        commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken
        in arcs whose radii are 1.
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     10. (Mus.)
         (a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human
             throat, in distinction from instrumental music.
         (b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat
             nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major.
         (c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which
             moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but
             little from the original key.
         (d) Neither flat nor sharp; -- of a tone.
         (e) Changed to the pitch which is neither flat nor sharp,
             by appending the sign [natural]; as, A natural.
             --Moore (Encyc. of Music).
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     11. Existing in nature or created by the forces of nature, in
         contrast to production by man; not made, manufactured, or
         processed by humans; as, a natural ruby; a natural
         bridge; natural fibers; a deposit of natural calcium
         sulfate. Opposed to {artificial}, {man-made},
         {manufactured}, {processed} and {synthetic}. [WordNet
         sense 2]
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     12. Hence: Not processed or refined; in the same statre as
         that existing in nature; as, natural wood; natural foods.
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     {Natural day}, the space of twenty-four hours. --Chaucer.
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     {Natural fats}, {Natural gas}, etc. See under {Fat}, {Gas}.
        etc.
  
     {Natural Harmony} (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common
        chord.
  
     {Natural history}, in its broadest sense, a history or
        description of nature as a whole, including the sciences
        of {botany}, {Zoology}, {geology}, {mineralogy},
        {paleontology}, {chemistry}, and {physics}. In recent
        usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of
        botany and Zoology collectively, and sometimes to the
        science of zoology alone.
  
     {Natural law}, that instinctive sense of justice and of right
        and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished
        from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated
        human law.
  
     {Natural modulation} (Mus.), transition from one key to its
        relative keys.
  
     {Natural order}. (Nat. Hist.) See under {order}.
  
     {Natural person}. (Law) See under {person}, n.
  
     {Natural philosophy}, originally, the study of nature in
        general; the natural sciences; in modern usage, that
        branch of physical science, commonly called {physics},
        which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and
        considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by
        any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted with
        {mental philosophy} and {moral philosophy}.
  
     {Natural scale} (Mus.), a scale which is written without
        flats or sharps.
  
     Note: Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to
           mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales
           represented by the use of flats and sharps) being
           equally natural with the so-called natural scale.
  
     {Natural science}, the study of objects and phenomena
        existing in nature, especially biology, chemistry, physics
        and their interdisciplinary related sciences; {natural
        history}, in its broadest sense; -- used especially in
        contradistinction to {social science}, {mathematics},
        {philosophy}, {mental science} or {moral science}.
  
     {Natural selection} (Biol.), the operation of natural laws
        analogous, in their operation and results, to designed
        selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in
        the survival of the fittest; the elimination over time of
        species unable to compete in specific environments with
        other species more adapted to survival; -- the essential
        mechanism of evolution. The principle of natural selection
        is neutral with respect to the mechanism by which
        inheritable changes occur in organisms (most commonly
        thought to be due to mutation of genes and reorganization
        of genomes), but proposes that those forms which have
        become so modified as to be better adapted to the existing
        environment have tended to survive and leave similarly
        adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted
        have tended to die out through lack of fitness for the
        environment, thus resulting in the survival of the
        fittest. See {Darwinism}.
  
     {Natural system} (Bot. & Zool.), a classification based upon
        real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of
        the organisms, and by their embryology.
  
              It should be borne in mind that the natural system
              of botany is natural only in the constitution of its
              genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand
              divisions.                            --Gray.
        
  
     {Natural theology}, or {Natural religion}, that part of
        theological science which treats of those evidences of the
        existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are
        exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from {revealed
        religion}. See Quotation under {Natural}, a., 3.
  
     {Natural vowel}, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir,
        her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest
        open position of the mouth organs. See {Neutral vowel},
        under {Neutral} and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17.
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     Syn: See {Native}.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chemistry \Chem"is*try\ (k[e^]m"[i^]s*tr[y^]; 277), n. [From
     {Chemist}. See {Alchemy}.]
     1. That branch of science which treats of the composition of
        substances, and of the changes which they undergo in
        consequence of alterations in the constitution of the
        molecules, which depend upon variations of the number,
        kind, or mode of arrangement, of the constituent atoms.
        These atoms are not assumed to be indivisible, but merely
        the finest grade of subdivision hitherto attained.
        Chemistry deals with the changes in the composition and
        constitution of molecules. See {Atom}, {Molecule}.
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     Note: Historically, chemistry is an outgrowth of alchemy (or
           alchemistry), with which it was anciently identified.
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     2. An application of chemical theory and method to the
        consideration of some particular subject; as, the
        chemistry of iron; the chemistry of indigo.
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     3. A treatise on chemistry.
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     Note: This word and its derivatives were formerly written
           with y, and sometimes with i, instead of e, in the
           first syllable, chymistry, chymist, chymical, etc., or
           chimistry, chimist, chimical, etc.; and the
           pronunciation was conformed to the orthography.
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     {Inorganic chemistry}, that which treats of inorganic or
        mineral substances.
  
     {Organic chemistry}, that which treats of the substances
        which form the structure of organized beings and their
        products, whether animal or vegetable; -- called also
        {chemistry of the carbon compounds}. There is no
        fundamental difference between organic and inorganic
        chemistry.
  
     {Physiological chemistry}, the chemistry of the organs and
        tissues of the body, and of the various physiological
        processes incident to life.
  
     {Practical chemistry}, or {Applied chemistry}, that which
        treats of the modes of manufacturing the products of
        chemistry that are useful in the arts, of their
        applications to economical purposes, and of the conditions
        essential to their best use.
  
     {Pure chemistry}, the consideration of the facts and theories
        of chemistry in their purely scientific relations, without
        necessary reference to their practical applications or
        mere utility.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  chemistry
       n 1: the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences
            dealing with the composition of substances and their
            properties and reactions [syn: {chemical science}]
       2: the way two individuals relate to each other; "their
          chemistry was wrong from the beginning -- they hated each
          other"; "a mysterious alchemy brought them together" [syn:
           {interpersonal chemistry}, {alchemy}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "chemistry":
     alchemy, applied chemistry, astrochemistry, biochemistry,
     biogeochemistry, chemicobiology, chemicoengineering, chemurgy,
     colloid chemistry, crystallochemistry, cytochemistry,
     electrochemistry, engineering chemistry, geochemistry,
     geological chemistry, hydrochemistry, iatrochemistry,
     immunochemistry, inorganic chemistry, lithochemistry,
     macrochemistry, mineralogical chemistry, nuclear chemistry,
     pathochemistry, petrochemistry, pharmacochemistry,
     physical chemistry, physicochemistry, phytochemistry,
     psychobiochemistry, radiochemistry, soil chemistry,
     theoretical chemistry, thermochemistry, topochemistry,
     ultramicrochemistry, zoochemistry, zymochemistry, zymurgy
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CHEMISTRY med. jur. The science which teaches the nature and property of all 
  bodies by their analysis and combination. In considering cases of poison, 
  the lawyer will find a knowledge of chemistry, even very limited in degree, 
  to be greatly useful. 2 Chit. Pr. 42, n.